February 14th, 2010 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, True Stories
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BEEEEEEEEEP!
Reaching for the alarm, but it’s not the clock. Check the cell phone, but it’s not a text message. Grope for the cat, but she’s not beeping, either.
BEEEEEEEEEP!
Oh yeah, how could I forget?
52 mg/dl. Not too low, but apparently I’ve over-corrected with those basal changes I made two days ago, and I need to retweak just a little bit.
Wandered out to the kitchen, leaving the BEEEEEEP!ing behind in the bedroom, and also leaving the tube of glucose tabs resting on the bedside table untouched. Make a beeline for the bottle of grape juice that sat, unopened, in the fridge. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
February 13th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, News
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When I first talked about Kickbee, it created a buzz about how this method could be utilized in health management. In a nutshell, Corey Menscher, the father of kickbee, probably the youngest Twitter user, has designed a kick sensor which monitors his pregnant wife’s belly, and generates a fetal tweet whenever the baby kicks.
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
February 8th, 2010 by DrDavisLiu in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Some patients love their vitamins, spending hundreds to thousands of dollars annually. At times, they will even forgo proven medical therapy. As more Americans go without health insurance coverage while others face higher office visits and copays, increasing numbers of patients are seeking alternative, natural therapies instead of medical care. Are vitamins really the scientific breakthrough and secret that doctors refuse to recommend or are they simply marketing hype? As any medical school student will tell you, the correct answer to any question is: it depends.
For certain groups, pregnant women, patients with macular degeneration, and vegetarians, vitamins and minerals may be recommended as research finds them helpful. Prenatal vitamins have more folic acid which has been found to decrease the risk of neural tube defects in the fetus. Vegetarians may need to supplement their diet with vitamin B12, iron, and vitamin D, which are absent in their food choices. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
January 17th, 2010 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, True Stories
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Yesterday’s Diabetes 365 photo was this:
This little, blue, ceramic hippo came with a circus playset I received decades ago. I can’t even remember how long I’ve had it, but since college, this one creature has been living in the drawer in every bathroom of every apartment I’ve ever lived in. It just refuses to be lost or misplaced, though its face is chipped and it’s not the same vibrant blue it once was.
Over the last few days, BSparl has been moving actively and visibly, poking her little legs and arms into my abdomen and dancing around in there. Being the mature adult that I am, I wanted to see if she would respond to things being placed on my belly. If Chris puts his hand on me, she reacts immediately. (She loves her daddy best, I think.) I rested a glass of ice water on my stomach for just a second the other day and she went after it like Siah after a pump cap. And yesterday, a warm mug of tea made her jut her legs out aggressively. (Someone on Twitter said this baby has beverage editorial going on. I’m not shocked - she’s my kid, so she’s bound to have some strong opinions on stuff.) Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
January 16th, 2010 by DrToniBrayer in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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I can’t tell you the number of times women in their mid 40’s come to me and announce “Well, I’m ready to get pregnant”. Putting off pregnancy is understandable in our times. Women are building their careers, moving and traveling, going through a series of “Mr. Wrongs” and looking for the best baby-daddy. Women have thought that fertility was a given and they could get pregnant when the time was right. But, sadly, what they haven’t been told is the cruel trick of nature. Fertility doctors know…after age 29 your chance of having a baby without medical treatment is diminishing every year. After age 40 there is a precipitous drop.
To bring that fact home, check this out. A woman age 19-26 has a 50% chance of getting pregnant during any one menstrual cycle if she has intercourse two days prior to ovulation. For women age 27-34 the chance was 40% and after age 35 it drops to 30%. And at 40 you are only 1/2 as fertile as you were at 35. That is a sharp drop off! Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
January 7th, 2010 by DrJonLaPook in Better Health Network, Expert Interviews, Video
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For thousands of years, infertility was considered a female problem. The word “barren” sounds almost comical now but was a commonplace label a century ago. In “The Cottage Physician,” written at the end of the 19th century, a section entitled “Barrenness” lists possible causes, including “want of tone or strength in the system” and “nervous debility.” Treatments included “cold bathing, general tonics or strengtheners to the system, electricity applied locally” as well as “abstinence from sexual indulgence for a time.” Fortunately, medicine has progressed considerably since then and the diagnosis and treatment of infertility have improved dramatically. But the misconception that it’s solely a female problem has persisted. Read more »
December 27th, 2009 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, True Stories
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Last Friday, Chris and I (and BSparl) were at Joslin all day long. ALL DAY. But that’s what’s required with type 1 diabetes and pregnancy, so I wanted to recap these appointment for posterity, and for anyone else who is curious about what it takes to manage this whole party. It’s a long post, but with five different appointments to cover, I want to make sure I don’t miss a beat.
Grab some coffee. I’ll wait. 
Eye Dilation: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
December 20th, 2009 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
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Hi there. I’m addicted to pineapple.
This week, I’ll be five months pregnant, and it seems like the vitamin C cravings I had early on in my pregnancy are back with a vengeance. Orange juice (yes, with pulp), kiwi fruit, apples, raisins (even though they’re low in it, I still want them), and pineapple. To the point where Chris and I bought a pineapple at the grocery store last week and I ate half of it in two days time. What’s good is that, for whatever reason, my blood sugars aren’t rebelling against this fruit overload. (Different from cute overload, where hamsters play the trumpet.) Before the BSparl invasion, I had things like oatmeal timed out with precision, so that I could eat something with 30 grams of carbs in it without a spike, but just one apple could cause my numbers to go berserk. Now? Oatmeal is hard to predict, but I can nosh on a whole bowl of fruit salad, estimate the carbs, and coast in the low 100’s for NO REASON.
Pregnancy and type 1 diabetes is a very peculiar combination. /digression Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
November 26th, 2009 by admin in Better Health Network, Quackery Exposed, Research
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By Dr. Amy Tuteur
Waterbirth has been touted as an alternative form of pain relief in childbirth. Indeed, it is often recommended as the method of choice for pain relief in “natural” childbirth. It’s hardly natural, though. In fact, it is completely unnatural. No primates give birth in water, because primates initiate breathing almost immediately after birth and the entire notion of waterbirth was made up only 200 years ago. Not surprisingly, waterbirth appears to increase the risk of neonatal death. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
November 24th, 2009 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, True Stories
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BSparl is getting bigger. (And so am I.)
I spent a lot of time planning this pregnancy, starting from back in 2003 when I decided to go on an insulin pump. And even though preparation didn’t begin in earnest until Chris and I were married, having a child has always been something I’ve wanted with my whole heart. So I read up on what to expect, and what to do to help improve my diabetes control, and what prenatal vitamins to take.
What I didn’t do much research on was the actual pregnancy itself. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
